The Meta
Freelancer Agent Maine, better known as The Meta, is a major antagonist from the popular Red Vs Blue series, serving as the main antagonist of its second saga The Recollection Trilogy. A rouge Freelancer, The Meta's main goal is to get better armor and more artificial intellect to be more powerful. Overview Before his villanous role, Maine was a Freelancer, striving to become strong. After a throat wound disabled his ability to speak, he was given Sigma to help him communicate. However, he became a slave to his influence, betraying Project Freelancer and getting enough armor enhancements and A.I.s to reach "Metastability". Changing his name to refelct this, he became a major threat to Project Freelancer, UNSC, the general population, and the Reds and Blues. Biography Project Freelancer The New Recruit Conscripted to the group under the name Agent Mane, he, with Wyoming and York, tested a new member's abilites, that member being Agent Texas. In the battle with them, York tries to match their attacks with their foe's to no avail, causing both Maine and Texas to try again and again with a forward assult, causing them to be stunned repeatedly. In the ninth round, both swap their rounds with real bullets, and try to murder Rex. However, both members are soon unable to move. Breaking out of his stunned phase, Maine tries to attack once more by throwing a pillar at Tex. After this fails, he tries one last time by throwing a grenade at them, but even this fails as it misses and lands near York. Wanting to save him, Tex fires at York with her paralying paint, causing him to be able to not be killed by the blast. A medic offers to help Maine afterward, but he denies their request. Mission for the Sarcophagus Later, he is seen in the meeting room in Planning the Heist ''preparing to be told the details on his mission to nab the titular Sarcophagus. Assigned in Group A with Wash, Carolina, and York, they are planned to invade the building the treasure is in. In the mission, Mane finds a Brute Shot in the Vault, talking it for himself. He is later is booted out of a window so Caroline can get a package and the Sarcophagus up on a roof. When the Package is on the roof, he lands inside a parking garage, where he fights the soldiers in it. After some time, he gets a Warthog to rescue his team-mates after they get the package. They drive over a overpass to get something from Rhee Sebiel: a briefcase. Maine jumps on the man's car and kills him, gaining the desired loot in the process. After this, they are chased by someInsurrectionists, as Maine gets hit by a sniper's bullet. After healing up, he goes with Carolina to fight but is defeated by Girlie. Swapping his target with Caroline, he duels with the Sleeveless Insurrection Soldier, a far more even brawl. After being stabbed, Girlie tosses her gun to Maine's enemy, causing the unlucky trooper to be shot multiple times in his throat. Still going despite his trauma, Maine tries to kill the two assaulters, but shoots his truck by mistake, causing it to swerve into another car, sending them all out of it. Maine once again gets the short end of the stick, being hit by a truck and sent flying off the freeway. Becoming The Meta After healing from his throat wounds, Caroline gave Maine a A.I. so he can talk with the other Freelancers, Sigma. After this, he goes to a class with South, Carolina, North, York, Washington, and Wyoming. He then was in a mission as a sort of last resort to find C.T. in the Longshore Shipyards. Washington throws a trasmitter, which Maine lands in a pod quickly. Sigma then reminds main about the man that disabled him, ordering him to murder him. Soon after taking care of the soldier, he helps Caroline fight Demo Man and Girlie. In the fight, he removes Demo Man's cybernetic limb and successfully stops Girlie by making her jump off a building. Later seen with North and South watching the Insurrectionist Leader's getaway boat leave, he is then seen loading his purrloined Brute Shot in a locker room with Wyoming. There, both his and Wyoming's AI talk to Carolina about how important Agent Texas and Omega are. As this goes on, Maine head starts to suddenly hurt, beliving it to be Sigma's power over himself. Relaxing in the Recovery station for the endless assortment of head issues (Something that isn't normal with Freelancers, as York comments about his headaches only lasted a few weeks.), he then watches a small training session that Carolina and Tex are in. However, The Director then suddenly rushes in and yells Tex's name due to his concern over her, everyone's A.I. go nuts, giving everyone a figurative and literal headache. After this, he is seen fixing up his Brute Shot and loading his armor in the locker room. He tries to swipe Gamma from Wyoming, but Gamma quickly ejects from his mind, unfortunately damaing his brain. This was blamed on Tex, much to her unluckiness. After the Mother of Invention has to land on a frosty planet, Maine uses Carolina's current weakness for himself, snatching both Eta and Iota. He then throws her off a cliff, with Sigma brings up the idea of gathering all A.I. fragments to make the Alpha. From then on, Maine became the Meta, determined to track the needed agents to steal their A.I and armor enhancements. Post-War Rampage Over a period of time, the Meta had killed four Freelancer agents, stripping them of their equipment and A.I. However, the multiple A.I. gathered in The Meta's head began to deteriorate his mental status. Most of the priority one recovery signals Agent Washington received during this time were a result of the Meta's actions. However, there was one signal that was not triggered by the Meta: Agent New York, who was killed in action by Agent Wyoming. York's A.I. Delta was recovered by Washington, which prompted the Meta to begin hunting down Washington. The Meta killed Agent North Dakota, stealing his A.I. Theta and enhancement, both to benefit himself, and to bring Washington into his sights. The Meta spared North's sister South Dakota however, simply knocking her unconscious after she put her brother in a position to be killed. Washington, after faking South's death in order for her to help him fight the Meta, whose identity was not yet known at that point, set out to a remote industrial area to wait for his attacker. When the Meta began his attack, Washington implanted Delta into Agent South, but South turned on him, shooting him in the back in order to save herself. South addressed the Meta directly, lying that she had placed a timed charge on Washington's body and that he could either go after her or strip Wash of his enhancement and find them another day. The Meta opted for the latter, and South escaped, now on the run from both the Meta and Project Freelancer. Not long after this, a Pelican piloted by Agent Texas crash landed in Freelancer Simulation Outpost 17-B. The Meta had tracked the ship to its crash site, and scavenged the Blue Base, acquiring cloaking from Agent Texas' body, and capturing the A.I. Gamma. The Meta then attacked Red Base and acquired Omega and Tex herself, leaving only one survivor. The Meta and his captured A.I. then scrawled a cryptic message on the walls of Red Base; "''We are The Meta", establishing themselves as a single entity. In response, Recovery Agents Six and Nine were sent to investigate and document the carnage, but the Meta attacked the two agents and killed them. After manipulating a recorded radio transmission to trick Sarge into eliminating Washington and attacking South Dakota, the Meta uses Wyoming's time distortion unit to escape from Wash. However, he is wounded in a battle with Agent Washington, Church, and Caboose when he attempted to kill South. The Meta is later seen at Zanzibar attempting to recharge his power supplies. Although he is nearly defeated, the Reds interfere at the last minute, allowing the Meta to acquire Delta. Afterward, the Meta attacks both Washington's team and the reassembled Reds. Washington eventually rips off a turret and chases him away after inflicting several wounds. Eventually, the Meta climbs on the back of a tank driven by the Reds, Blues, and Wash to infiltrate command. He then reveals himself at command, as a cloaked figure and the command soldiers attack him. The Meta later follows Washington and Church and wounds the former, but is stopped from killing him as the Alpha (Church) jumps into his head. The Meta begins to destabilize due to the presence of Alpha in his head but is spared when the EMP destroys all the A.I. Pursuit for Epsilon At some point after the events of Reconstruction, the UNSC released the Meta and Washington by orders from The Chairman and sent them to capture the Epsilon A.I.. The Meta soon arrives at Blue Base and takes Donut hostage, though ends up chasing after Simmons after the red sees him and runs away. Simmons goes to warn Lopez and the two attempt to fight off the Meta, only for the Meta to power through their attacks, causing them to run away. As the Meta approaches them, Washington intervenes and tells the Meta to stand down. Wash then reveals he is the Meta's partner and shoots Lopez and Donut before taking Simmons hostage. After Doc arrives at Valhalla, the Meta knocks him out and captures him. When Sarge arrives to confront them, Wash tells The Meta to kill Doc and Simmons if Sarge gives him any trouble. After sees an explosion out in the distance, the Meta attacks Doc and Simmons, only for Doc to overcharge his medical scanner and shoot the Meta with it, causing him to slow down due to damage to his time distortion unit. However, the Meta eventually regains control and chases after Simmons after sending Doc flying into a wall. However, he becomes distracted by the arrival of Epsilon, giving the Reds a chance to escape. Sandtrap After Doc tells Wash and the Meta that Simmons mentioned something about sand, the duo and Doc travel to the desert tracking a recovery beacon, where they dig up C.T.'s body and find themselves surrounded by the Aliens. Afterhe Aliens trick Wash and the Meta with a promise of a map that ends up being full of petty insults, the two kill them. The Meta and Washington then begin searching the camp for any clues of Epsilon. The Meta eventually finds the Epsilon unit, which Wash has him modify into a capture unit. The two later leave to follow a recovery beacon to the Reds and Epsilon. Avalanche The beacon leads the Meta and Washington to Sidewinder, where find an unconscious Epsilon on the ground. However, they end up getting caught in a trap of mines set up by Epsilon-Tex, exploding and sending Wash, The Meta and Doc flying. As Wash begins to recover, Tex confronts them and demands Washington tell her The Director's location, but Wash claims not to know. The Meta then attacks Tex, leading to a fight between the duo of the Meta and Washinton and Tex. As the fight goes on, Tex activates another set of explosives that cause the cliff to collapse. After Washington shoots and wounds Tex, the Meta gets to safe ground by using his Brute Shot to stab the side of the ice cliff so he can climb up, soon being joined on the top of the cliff by Washington as well. The Meta then attacks Tex againa nd, despite Wash protests, stabs Tex in the face with the capture unit, trapping her inside. As Wash tries to get Epsilon to cooperate, tells the Meta to give him the memory unit. However, the Meta, seeking to regain his lost power, instead attaches the unit to his back. With Tex to monitor his equipment, the Meta regains his powers and turns invisible. He then attacks and beats down Wash, only for a damaged Pelican being flown by the Reds and Blues, to crash near him and interrupt the struggle. The Meta then attacks them and Wash battles with the Meta in close combat, only for the Meta to easily beat Wash down. Sarge, Simmons, Grif, and Tucker soon show up and begin attacking him, but the Meta easily fends them off. Sarge then begins to slowly approach the Meta while firing his shotgun, but the Meta knocks the shotgun out of Sarge's hand and chokes him. Death However, this turns out to have been part of Sarge's plan as he connects the tow-hook of the Warthog, given to him by Washington earlier, to The Meta's chest plate while Grif and Simmons push the Warthog over the edge of the cliff. Sarge then disconnects the capture unit from The Meta's back as the Meta is dragged down the cliff by the tow cable. In one act of spite, the Meta grabs Grif and tries to pull him down as well. However, Simmons grabs hold onto Grif, which causes The Meta to lose his hold him and give Grif a chance to hold on while the Meta plummets to bottom of the cliff. It was later confirmed The Meta perished from asphyxiation by drowning in the water below. Legacy Some time later, the Meta's armor was placed inside a crate and put aboard a UNSC Ship containing the Reds and Blues. After the ship crashed on the planet Chorus, Locus retrieved the crate and delivered it to Chairman Malcolm Hargrove aboard the Staff of Charon. The suit of armor was studied by Charon Industries, who used the Meta's enhancements to create new ones to be utilized by the Space Pirates that did not require an A.I. to run properly. Malcolm would later use the theoretical armor as a bargaining chip to Locus and Felix if they completed their mission successfully. After Locus began to question himself and why the Reds and Blues were winning, he sought out Aiden Price to find out why the Meta had lost against them. Price revealed to Locus that the Meta and Agent Maine were two different people, and how the former had died the moment the EMP went off, leaving only the broken shell of Maine. Price also told him that the Meta had never wanted to be a weapon, rather he wanted to be human, which caused Locus to rethink his cause. While infiltrating the Staff of Charon, the Reds and Blues entered Hargrove's trophy room, where Tucker put on the Meta's armor and Epsilon fractures himself into the memories of the other A.I. fragments to run the suit for their last stand against Hargrove's forces. Personality Though he had some honorable qualities during his time as a Freelancer, including saving Carolina's life by taking a sniper round aimed at her spine, the Meta was nevertheless aggressive, blameworthy, traitorous, amoral, unethical, and somewhat sociopathic. During his match with Tex, he, along with Wyoming had no qualms about killing her with live ammo. He was also extremely violent when angered. An example of this was when Sigma reminded him about the soldier who shot him in the throat, Maine was furious, eager to kill him for revenge. Unlike Omega, who was obstreperous, impolite, brash, and loud, the Meta was a stoic and imperturbable man of few words who let his actions speak for him. He said very little when he was capable of speaking and was very proud of his power. He was also not above taunting his enemies with his strength, such as when he allowed the Sleeveless Insurrectionist to deal the first blow, then catching it and sadistically twisted his arm, forcing the soldier to his knees and killing him with a single punch. Complimenting his vicious and temperamental nature, The Meta's fighting style was very destructive, relying on power, brute strength and wrestling attacks. However, this combat form was unrefined, and against more skilled fighters, such as Tex, The Meta was at a disadvantage. Despite his somewhat brutish, loathsome, and insensitive personality, the Meta was also very manipulative devious, manipulating the Reds into attacking the Blues and using Washington and South as pawns to obtain A.I. for his own possession. As the Meta, Maine had become a predator. Whether it was his own volition or the A.I.'s will to do so, he slaughtered everyone (including his former comrades) who got in his way. He was nothing short of a monster, willing to increase his power at the cost of countless lives. Even after losing all of his A.I.s, the Meta only aided the Chairman and Washington in order to steal the missing A.I. from them to regain some of his power. Skills and Abilities Weaponry The Meta is skilled with multiple weapons, but prefers to use his Brute Shot (known to Donut as the "Kick-Ass Broom") as his signature weapon, and has used its grenade launching abilities and blade to deadly effect. The Meta also wields a magnum pistol as a sidearm and has tried to kill Wash with it many times and used one to try and kill Tex during training in Introductions. In Chapters 10 and 11 of Reconstruction, the Meta threw a Warthog and several other large objects at Grif and the Reds. The Meta, being as powerful as he is, could be considered a weapon himself. Combat The Meta is one of the series' most lethal Freelancers and characters overall. During his time as a Freelancer, Agent Maine possessed an impressive level of physical strength, durability, stamina, and athleticism. He fought through multiple Insurrectionists in The Sarcophagus and fought evenly with an Insurrectionist soldier after a sniper rifle round to the chest during Spiral. Maine was also the only agent shown capable of moving (and fighting) after being hit by rounds of paralyzing paint, a testament to his amount of sheer brute strength. He even managed to disarm Tex while painted, and it required a headshot to completely paralyze him. Maine has been revealed to be quite heavy, capable of counter-balancing the Sarcophagus, and smashing a Warthog's hood and sending the occupants flying by simply by landing on it. In his rematch with the Sleeveless Insurrectionist, he effortlessly killed the soldier with one punch. He is possibly the physically strongest and most resilient known Freelancer agent. Shortly before the events of Recovery One, the Meta had killed four other Freelancers who were (according to Delta) better fighters than Wash. Later, when Wash confronted The Meta at the Zanzibar power plant, despite not being able to use his abilities due to insufficient power, The Meta still managed to defeat Washington. The Meta is most likely (with its several armor enhancements) a deadlier and more capable fighter than Tex. For example, when the Reds ask what he is, Church describes The Meta as being "like eight of her.". Durability and Strength The Meta is also very durable, being able to survive around 10 Trip Mine explosions along with the subsequent explosion of a Warthog, both without taking an injury. He was capable of sustaining a few Chaingun rounds, getting physically beaten multiple times, receiving five knife related wounds, two embedded in the chest and back, a point-blank explosion from his own Brute Shot, take four close-range shotgun blasts, and even getting Tucker's Energy Sword driven through his chest, all without any time to heal in between and still be able to move with his usual agility and strength without any sign of struggle despite these injuries. Additionally, he is revealed to have incredible strength, as shown in Reconstruction Chapter 10 when he lifts a Warthog over his head and throws it at Grif with very little effort, and later is shown to have thrown much more at Grif. Whether this is due to one of the many armor enhancements the Meta had obtained at that point, or simply his own sheer brute strength is unknown. His strength was later shown at the end of Introductions, as he launched a large stone block at Tex with simply a punch. In Season 10, Maine was able to stop a Warthog in its tracks when it attempted to run him over and destroyed it by easily tearing its tow hooks off and kicking it back with no visible effort. Trivia *The Meta is one of the few characters to have his own theme music: "(When) Your Middle Name is Danger" by Trocadero. The music played for the Meta is the same music that is played in the Reconstruction Trailer and has been played in every chapter of Reconstruction the Meta has appeared in with the exception of Chapter 11. *Out of all the characters in the series, the Meta has the most shown/confirmed kills at 30+ kills. *The Meta's death is likely poetic justice as it's very similar to Carolina's "death," his first victim when he became the Meta, as the two were both thrown off a cliff at Sidewinder and his death was caused by the Reds, who he originally used for his own benefit when tricking them to stop Washington in Reconstruction. *Sigma saying "We are The Meta" may be a reference to the character Venom's quote "We are Venom" in the Spiderman comic book series. *The Meta speaks only three times in the series, with the first being in the episode Lifting the Veil, where he yells "Get off me!" to a medic. He speaks two more times in The Sarcophagus and in Spiral. *He appeared on ScrewAttack's DEATH BATTLE series to fight Agent Carolina and was defeated by her. Navigation Category:Game Changer Category:Rogues Category:Male Category:Science Fiction Villains Category:Cartoon Villains Category:Red Vs Blue Villains Category:Internet Villains Category:Mute Category:Homicidal Category:Amoral Category:Big Bads Category:Evil from the Past Category:Friend of a Hero Category:Tragic Category:Mongers Category:Possessed/Brainwashed Category:Mentally Ill Category:Traitor Category:Power Hungry Category:Thief Category:Brutes Category:Military Category:Sadists Category:Mechanically Modified Category:One-Man Army Category:Comedy Villains Category:Cheater Category:Obsessed Category:The Heavy Category:Machinima Villains Category:Multi-Beings Category:Villains by Proxy Category:Serial Killers Category:Fighters Category:Deceased Category:Youtube Movie Villains Category:Pawns Category:Protagonists Category:Extremists Category:Enforcer Category:Vengeful Category:Fallen Heroes Category:Murderer Category:Posthumous Category:Legacy